By Miyoko Sakashita
The Huffington Post, December 12, 2014
Scientists just published a paper with the first-ever estimate of all the plastic garbage floating in the world's oceans.
The
results were astronomical: More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic
debris, weighting 269,000 tons. These bits of garbage are distributed
throughout the world -- equally likely to be found in the tropical
waters of the South Pacific as the glacial bays of Alaska.
But
what's even more telling is what the scientists didn't find in their
surveys. While researchers expected to discover a large amount of
microplastics, that is, plastics which have been broken down by the sun
and waves into pieces smaller than 5 millimeters, the number of
microplastics were an order of magnitude smaller than expected.
This
recent study confirms other researchers' observations that there is a
large discrepancy between expected and observed microplastic weight and
abundance in the world's oceans. So, less garbage than expected -- good
news, right?
Wrong.
These bits of plastic didn't magically disappear -- instead, they have
been eaten by fish, turtles and other animals that mistake the particles
for food. In addition, many of these tiny pieces have sunk below the
surface of the ocean, and either float in the water column where surveys
can't reach, or have settled to the bottom where they can be ingested
by snails and other bottom feeders.
When
animals consume plastic, they also consume all the toxins used to
create plastic, like BPA, along with all the pollutants in the water
that plastics absorb while they float in the ocean. Studies have shown
that the concentration of toxic chemicals, such as PCB and DDT, can be
up to a million times greater in plastic debris than found in seawater.
These chemicals are inherently toxic, and can cause serious
physiological damage in animals. And since big fish eat little fish,
more organisms ingest plastic particles indirectly via their prey
organisms, and concentrate the chemicals up the food chain.
Larger
pieces of litter, like plastic bags, pose their own problems for seals,
sea turtles, birds and other animals that ingest them.
Plastics
are a huge problem for our oceans, and it is only predicted to get
worse. Almost 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year, and
only 5 percent of the world's plastic is currently recycled. Researchers
forecast the volume of oceanic plastic debris will only increase due to
rising production of throwaway plastic, and consumers' insatiable
desire for cheap and convenient plastic goods.
That, of course, assumes we'll keep doing what we're doing. But it doesn't have to be that way.
You
can start by refusing single-use plastic goods, petitioning your town
to enact plastic-bag bans and recycling every piece of plastic you can.
We'll
need action at a higher level too. The Center for Biological Diversity,
where I work, has petitioned the EPA to do more to keep plastics off
our beaches and out of our oceans. You can do your part by pressuring
your political representatives to take this issue seriously with new and
aggressive policies that get us back on the right track.
Now that we know just how much garbage we are dealing with, it's time to start finding solutions to clean up our oceans.
Emily Jeffers contributed to this post.
Follow Miyoko Sakashita on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EndangeredOcean
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